News

Money Invested To Tackle Youth Unemployment

Monday March 17 2014

MORE than £1.4 million is to be invested in Barnsley to tackle long-term youth unemployment.

People between the ages of 16 and 24 who have been unemployed for more than six months will be the primary focus of the scheme.

The combined £1.08m funding, from Sheffield and Leeds city regions, will see the council also invest £330,000 itself to try to reduce the amount of young adults - thought to be around 1,800 - who claim Jobseeker's Allowance.

Money will be spent on the creation of an 'employment support hub', which will see a mentor offer guidance to jobseekers throughout the process of gaining employment.

Coun Tim Cheetham, cabinet spokesperson for children, young people and families, said: "The programme will give us a real opportunity to influence how training and employment skills are delivered, and improve opportunities and outcomes for Barnsley young people and their communities."

Money should be spent on tackling the unscrupulous agencies that will ONLY send Eastern Europeans to client workplaces instead of discriminating against our own people in this town.
Is it any wonder our young uns don't get the first bite of the cherry?
Tackle the agencies FIRST £1.4 million saved....

Does it not concern you that our youngsters aren't even getting ANY bite of the cherry?
Does it not concern you that the people who were born and bred in this country are being systematically DISCRIMINATED against by unscrupulous agencies that will ONLY send Eastern European labour to client workplaces?

I know of people with rafts of qualifications that simply can not get a job in our town because the agencies will NOT send them to client workplaces as they favour cheaper migrant workers.

You also have to look at the bigger picture of youth unemployment, if as I have rightly said, the agencies wont send the young uns to client workplaces and they have no hope in hell of getting a job then how on gods earth are they EVER going to be able to get a foot on the housing ladder?

The Tories also tell us that they aim to "tackle" youth unemployment but their "flagship welfare reforms" tell us otherwise don't they as 700,000 16 -24 year olds were "sanctioned" last year and had their benefits taken away from them.

In order to "shove" the young uns into jobs the jobs have to be there in the first place don't they?

3 MILLION PLUS unemployed and only 596,000 jobs available.

The system is weighted heavily against the young uns and the only winners are migrants who will work all day for "nowt a yard" and the unscrupulous agencies and client workplaces (Asos) that make MILLIONS off the backs of said cheaper migrant labour which is not only bad news for our young uns but for the people of our town in general.

A workplace "cap" of migrant workers is needed now as far as I am concerned.

Unfortunately STEVEO, Labour opened up the flood gates during their 13 years and allowed the biggest level of immigration in living memory (MILLIONS OF IMMIGRANTS) and FORGOT to put adequate and reliable border control in place. So it kinda left any other government to mop up their mess, snookered.

Yes and what a great job the Tories are doing aren't they?
Tens of thousands wasn't it?

OOps 900,000 more like, statistically MORE than the last 3 years when Labour were in power.

Oh and more "worldwide non EU" Migrants let is by the coalition in the last three years than labour let in in 13 years...

Said this to you before but I agree with your point about Labour and immigration, problem was they were that hellbent on being seen as "that" politically correct they let in all and sundry, they also got their sums on immigration horrifically wrong, exactly the same situation the Tories find themselves in today.

Got to agree with Richard with regards our youngsters being poorly educated. I have first hand experiance of that. BUT, job opportunities should be given to our own first.
BUT, sometimes,when all the jibber jabber has failed,no matter who it is,teachers ,anyone, all human beings should have the right to withdraw the only thing left and thats is thier labour.

Sid, I agree that in an ideal world you would look after the local born and raised folk first, but in reality, an employer will only want the BEST people on their staff. Folk from other areas are better educated. Acting as an employer and speaking hypothetically, what would you do given the choice of a shining star from Eastern Europe or a poorly educated local youngster?

The answer is to improve education standards in the local area to ENSURE they are desirable candidates at school leaving age.

Not all people in our town are badly educated, many aspire to go onto better things and make a better life for themselves by going into further education.

University fees have put a lot of youngsters off from going into higher education.
Theoretically speaking and depending on the University which one goes to, the graduate could be up to £50,000 in debt, no small potatoes is it?

The Tories have also allowed 60 odd universities in England charge the maximum of £9,000 per annum which could lead the overall debt owed by the graduate to a mind boggling £60-£100k.

The problem is the goalposts are constantly changing and sooner or later the only people that will be going to uni will be foreign students who have rich mummies and daddies.
Not saying that is a bad thing either, but just fact.

And what's wrong with youngsters making a CHOICE to go into higher education, which as its a CHOICE should be funded by themselves and paid back AFTER they reach a high enough salary? Until they reach a high enough salary, they don't start paying anything back at all from their student loan and under Labour the rate they paid would be HIGHER than the Lib Dems ensured is now the case!

Folk not choosing to go to university, can now more easily gain an apprenticeship leading to a skilled job.

I can speak from experience that I left school early and took a low paid job to turn it into a well paid career. I didn't choose University because its not always the answer.

The answer is to work hard at school, work hard at your job and success will be the reward.

Don't work hard at school, don't get as many options for work, expect benefits from the state and create a crappy life for yourself. Those are the choices.

Richard I agree with your last point. Education here seems to fall down in the last few years of schooling,so Im thinking the problem is more than just the teaching.
As a small employer,to be honest I rarely need look for new staff,my guys stay for ever,in fact one is just returning after a few years away. When looking for a trainee I look to Barnsley college, if they send a kid thats not upto scratch (and can at least spell egg...not as egge) I will ask for someone else,and explain why. Hopefully this will give the lad an incentive to buck his ideas up. So no, I would not look to Eastern Europe. I do firmly believe as a small employer I have to be loyal to our area. If I needed lots of trainees then yes,maybe I would be forced to seek out the better educated kids,but it would be a decision made by my head and not my heart.

Sid,If only every other employer had the same outlook rather than looking at the cheaper migrant option a better town and country this would be.

Something has to change and change FAST or else we are going to become a nation of "have nots".no jobs, no benefits, no roof over our heads, nothing.

The immigrants love it here, they get much better wages than back home just by earning the minimum wage, tax credits and child benefits for any kids they have left behind in Eastern Europe, they can live 8 to a house spending £12 a week each on rent and STILL get to send money back to their families back in their home countries AND have a better standard of living that the average UK minimum wage worker.

This is no exaggeration either, we have a team of polish lads that work at our place and they share a three bed terrace and "hot bed", I also know one that sends £1000 a MONTH back to his family in Poland.

The Tories tell us that immigration is good for our economy, rubbish! Its only good for the agencies and unscrupulous employers that will ONLY employ Eastern Europeans and for the immigrants themselves that send vast amounts of money back home.

So I guess these guys won't be liable to "Bedroom Tax" then, but do pay tax into the system from their wages, and quite a decent amount of tax too if they have £1000 spare to send home. So many that have lived in Barnsley all their lives feel they are entitled to a free house (via housing benefit) too big for their needs then complain that they have to give some back (via Bedroom tax).....then there's the chavs pitching up once a fortnight to collect their JSA and taking it home via the off licence and betting shop with their Special Brew..... that's what I don't get.

Just for the record, the firm that I work for is probably the second highest salary payer for factory/manufacturing work in our town and we earn near on the UK average which gives the immigrants PLENTY of spare coinage if they are living 8 to a house doesn't it?

Did you copy/paste your bit about chavs from either the Daily Fail or Sun webshite Rich?

Typical Neo-Liberal propaganda, tell me how can ANYONE afford special brew or a trip to the bookies on £71 a week?

Hmmm I'm still curious how you can say and I quote "they can live 8 to a house spending £12 a week each on rent and STILL get to send money back to their families back in their home countries AND have a better standard of living that the average UK minimum wage worker"

8 to a house is better living standards than the average UK minimum wage worker is it?? So why are there so many getting Housing Benefit complaining about Bedroom Tax when they have all this spare space in their homes giving them BETTER living conditions at the COST of the TAX PAYER??

1. the degree of wealth and material comfort available to a person or community.

Statistically MORE money in their pockets innit and I dare say better housing than what they have back in Polski.
One of the lads showed me a pic of his family home back in Lodz and it is not for good viewing...

Err so why shouldn't they be allowed to come here for a better standard of living, provided they are prepared to WORK HARD for it, which is my understanding that they DO WORK HARD FOR IT.......unlike many who think the world owes them a living for sitting on their backsides! Hard work deserves a fair days pay. No desire to work hard should not mean BENEFITS as easy street!

Err so why shouldn't they be allowed to come here for a better standard of living, provided they are prepared to WORK HARD for it, which is my understanding that they DO WORK HARD FOR IT.......unlike many who think the world owes them a living for sitting on their backsides! Hard work deserves a fair days pay. No desire to work hard should not mean BENEFITS as easy street!

Pity that isn't the case for the people born and bred in this country that cant get any sort of "hard work that deserves a fair days pay" as the agencies ACTIVELY DISCRIMINATE against people born in this country by only sending Eastern European labour to client workplaces.

All they come here for is MONEY and a LOT more money than what they can earn back home in their home countries.
A Lithuanian bloke that works at our place earns £26,000 p.a back home he was earning the equivalent of £6,000 p.a, he went back to Lithuania for a "holiday" which was only supposed the be for a week but turned up a MONTH later and kept his job!
Should have been sacked and a Barnsley lad given his job, if that would have been me I would have been long gone!

This political correctness makes my **** itch.

Its about time we started looking after are OWN first rather than "prop up" faltering economies of Eastern European countries!

Its a mess,and it seems the politicians have dug us into this hole and there is no way out. They live blinkered lives, well,wrong terminology there I suppose,they more than anyone know whats going on,they are the ones that have created the mess. As with alot of things Im not sure they look at the bigger picture,and that includes the humanity side of thier policies. It might sound soppy,but its not soppy to many that are stuck in limbo,poorly educated,no job,no mortgage, no outlook for the future. Yes there is further education,but to be fair,it should only be needed in cases of career change etc,not as standard. I wouldnt mind if the jobs wernt there, its the fact that the jobs are unavailiable to many of our own. I dont get it.

Steveo, are you talking about nationally or just in Barnsley and surrounding commutable areas?

Care to talk about LOCAL unemployment, new jobs and apprenticeships for the youths of the area? After all, that is what this post is supposed to be about!

And the post is demonstrating that £1.4million is being invested LOCALLY, which came out of the government purse to HELP reduce unemployment in Barnsley! THAT NAUGHTY COALITION GOVERNEMNT giving money to help the poor!

Hmm wrong AGAIN, where do you get your info from?
Daily Fail or Sun webshite?

AND I QUOTE :

"More jobs and apprenticeships under this government. Getting people off benefits and off their backsides."

1 - 2.5 MILLION people had their benefits sanctioned last year
2 - 700,000 were of the 16-25 year old age group
3 - 100,000 were disabled

To quote again:

"More jobs and apprenticeships under this government. Getting people off benefits and off their backsides"

3 MILLION people unemployed and only 596,000 jobs available, where are these jobs you speak of?

Of course we all know that Ian Duncan Smith is the BIGGEST LYING, FIGURE FIDDLING. PROPAGANDIST in the History of our NATION and has had his danny slapped on numerous occasion for his IANS DODGY STATS..

The Tories also "changed" the way that people are NOT counted so the "true" unemployment figure is nigh on FOUR MILLION....

FOUR MILLION unemployed and only 596,000 jobs available

Even a Neo -Liberal idiot can see that the jobs JUST ARE NOT THERE!

Bye bye Tories and Lib Dums its been emotional NOT.

AND why on EARTH do you keep mentioning UKIP?
I wouldn't vote for them If they were the ONLY party available to vote for, Farage is more of a laughing stock that your beloved Clegg is!

Told you this before, I ALWAYS vote and sometimes I have to go against my principles to vote for a party I would not normally vote for.

I will ALWAYS complain until we get a government in that stops immigration, ups the minimum wage substantially, scraps zero hours / annualised contracts and brings in vast sweeping legislation to stop agencies discriminating against people born and bred in this country.

We all have a right to complain, of course we do. But we live in such a multicultural varied country which has undergone many changes over past 2 decades. EVERYONE needs to be accommodated, but everyone also needs to contribute into society.

Some problems come down to cost and you mention immigration, Labour government has cost us the tax payer £150BILLION just on immigration alone. Immigration has led to overpopulated areas, which has in itself caused unemployment.

Minimum wage has been increased in the budget in ADDITION to the tax threshold also being increased SUBSTANTIALLY.

Discrimination will be a long standing problem, as its effectively asking to remove a freedom of choice for an employer. But I agree there needs to be a balanced approach.

Minimum wage needs to be at least £8.50+ an hour which will ACTUALLY save taxpayers some £4-£6 BILLION + pounds by not having to pay out Tax Credits.

There are companies that can afford to pay the £8.50 quoted but choose NOT to do so as the MW is the benchmark, they also don't want to upset their shareholders by incurring more labour costs then slashing shareholder dividend payments, just like Asos.

As i have said before, yes the rate of pay may not be palatable for small businesses but there are ways and means around this.

The other part of the discrimination issue is one that not a lot of people see on a daily basis, did you know that Spain (which has its own unemployment woes) actually has legislation in place that actively says that any jobs which are available MUST go to Spanish people?
Which is in clear breach of EU policy!
Not just Spain but Italy and Portugal too.
They can get away with things like that but our namby pamby idiotic government(s) wouldn't dare introduce legislation of this magnitude due to the fear of us being a racist country!

It is NOT racism or discrimination, it is wanting what is best for our own and the want and need of a level playing field.

Yes i constantly bang on about Asos and other employers in our town and i STILL cannot get my head round the fact that Symphony employ 91% Eastern Europeans,i find this totally and utterly obscene especially as we have one of the highest youth unemployment rates for a town our size in Western Europe!
91% Is most certainly NOT a level playing field in any way shape or form is it?

Of course the figure of 91% is the ultimate example of discrimination against the people that are wanting work in our town.

Symphony also made tens of Millions of pounds last year and obviously there is a reason why the made tens of millions isn't there?

Again, i keep banging the same drum but just for the record, i have no issues with immigrant workers per se, we have some Poles, Czechs, Latvians and Lithuanians that work at our place and for the most part they are all hardworking and pleasant and integrate well.
Apart from the odd one or two that are down right aloof and one doesn't tend to speak to them as if one says something they don't like then one is labelled as racist.
Which is a complete and utter load of bollocks as far as i am concerned.

One of my best mates is Portuguese and we socialise outside of work too.

Back to education, said this before but i wasn't interested at school and came away with only one qualification.
Since school i have gone one to learn a lot more and have just received a diploma in Business Improvement Techniques, not that it will do me any good at my time of life.

Yes, i agree education IS the key, but not everyone has good academic qualities and our town in particular has always lagged behind as at one time of the day you could just walk out of one job straight into another so one tended not to bother with school so much.
I am not talking 50 years ago either but I'm talking in my lifetime and I'm only in my mid forties.

So lets assume minimum wage is £8.50 per hour.....what do you then think will happen to the price of a loaf of bread?

As for what Spain, Portugal and Italy are doing...I really don't think we should be taking any advice from any of those countries, as if we were in the same state they are in would really give us something to complain about!

We are currently the fastest growing economy in the developed world, but these things don't filter through in a day, but it does promise better opportunities for all on the horizon.

The government has demonstrated that the UK will be in a cash rich surplus position in a few years time. This would never be the case under Labour as we would still be making mindless borrowings along with mindless spending.

I'm not saying EVERY YOUTH is a poorly educated layabout, but there is a perception and you only have to walk around town for an hour to see what I mean.

This perception needs to change, and the only way it can change is education from a pre-school early age, reinforced by support from the parents, head teachers and governors.

It seems many parents (not just in Barnsley) don't have the mindset or skill set to raise a child to be an upstanding pillar of society these days. Its become a material world all sucked into wanting everything easy.

It begins at an early age, children are impressionable and look up to their parents and peers. If their parents and peers are layabouts demonstrating poor social and parenting skills, and enjoy BENEFITS STREET then this WILL have a negative impact on that child right through school into adulthood. Would you want to give a job to someone with poor work ethics that's been set into their minds from an early age?

Tackle parenting, improve education and build a plan....that way we can raise the profile of the town and the people in it.

Its not about mining or Thatcher anymore, those days are long gone. Its about working through the bad times to make it a better place for all.

If they hadn't borrowed, then what? Barnsley folk would soon be moaning about a lot more then I'm sure of that!

The UK economy is now growing at the FASTEST rate in the developed world (largely due to our relationships in Europe and Asia), which means revenues increase significantly, which means national debt can be reduced significantly, which means interest on the national debt also reduces substantially, which also means investment on Health and Education can be increased, but we need to get the shop in order for all this to happen.

Ed Balls' calculator doesn't work after he runs out of fingers and toes!

Lets face facts, there are 3 Million unemployed (nigh on four if the true figures are ever revealed) and only 596,000 jobs available here in the UK , so theoretically speaking there are STILL 2.404 MILLION people that are going to be unemployed as there just aren't enough jobs o go around are there?

As i have said before out of the 3 million unemployed there were 700,000 16-24 year olds that were "sanctioned" last year so i would hardly class them as layabouts.

Must be a right old laugh not having any money for up to 26 weeks, bloody layabouts!

Why do you think these people are sanctioned?

Didn't look hard enough for jobs?

THE JOBS JUST ARE NOT THERE!

AND the jobs that are there are being chased by god knows how many people.

They are victims of a system that penalises them through no fault of their own, I'm not saying there aren't a few that take the **** but the large majority of them want to work and are absolutely desperate for ANY kind of work.

Again the sanction stats just show how much of an absolute mockery the coalitions pledge to cut youth unemployment really is.

Why do you think there is a "perception" that unemployed people or people on benefits are "layabouts"?

Right wing rags like the Daily Fail and Sun print these outrageous articles, sometimes on a daily basis and everyone believes everything that is printed is the gospel truth.
The Tories also propel the myth in their nefarious propagandist interviews, especially Ian Duncan Smith (Ians Dodgy Stats).

Maybe your figures are wrong STEVEO, which is why you're struggling to reconcile...maybe your sources are letting you down and maybe you shouldn't believe all YOU are reading, or perhaps take a step back and look at it from a more Liberal angle! lol

Steveo, national debt arises due to money needing to be spent on keeping the country running. Labour didn't spend nearly enough, which is why we became in this mess in the first place. The money Labour used was WASTED on wars in Iraq and Afganistan, Millenium Dome, failed NHS IT System, bailing out the banks during the banking crisis, then the mortgage crisis, Immigration etc etc etc. So, we didn't actually benefit from anything Labour spent money on. I can't think of one where we did benefit?? Unemployment wasn't fantastic under Labour was it? What did they do to put things right? I can tell you....they didn't do anything.

This government is showing us that they are spending money on things to create a better place to live, creating jobs and industry so we can produce exports, securing revenue from Europe and Asia. They are giving back to people. You mock about 1p off a pint, under Labour do you think it would be even less? Petrol for a start would be another 20p a litre by now under Labour.

In my humble opinion, Lib Dems have actually ensured the Tories have been more fair for the people, as they have introduced the increased tax threshold and increased minimum wage, free child care, free school meals, 1.5million apprenticeships and 1.3million jobs. They blocked the sale of schools to privately run businesses. What's that if its not helping the working man?

Not so sure Brian. Steveo has heart and the good of the working man on his side. Not to mention facts and figures. You wouldn't be so sure if you were on zero hours contract, there,all soon be no one to stand up for the workers rights. Then where will you be?

That's untrue and unfair Richard. I try to see both sides. You,all see that if you read my posts,and to be honest,I reckon that makes me the better person. Open minded and willing to consider the debate.

Richard @ Very disrespectful and pigheaded. Everyone is entitled to there views. The site is about people sharing there views and some very good banter also. So calling people lapdogs is childish and you have gone down in my estimations. Respect all WABers and name calling sould be left in the school playground..

CORRECT on all counts Swifty, but getting people that post on this forum to understand is like trying to knock a nail in a not.
They believe everything that the con dems say and what is printed in the right wing Tory propagandist rags!

Our school age children have access to one of the best education systems in the world. ALL parents should encourage their children to use this to their best advantage. School isn't an easy experience for all children, we know some children go to school hungry, upset, tired, worried etc because of chaotic home lives.
Good luck to all the young ones out there, get the best education you can and make a good life for yourselves and future families.

I'm a young white British working class lad and have worked full time since I was 16. I have 4 siblings, all of them are in full time employment or education in or around Barnsley. Only 1 of my 14 cousins aged between 17-43 is unemployed. Is there a reason we have all managed to get jobs within our local economy if all the immigrants are here getting preferential treatment over us?? Or is the difference that we've been raised with a work ethic and are actually willing to go out and do the work rather than sit around claiming benefits and blaming our situation on the bogey man?